Dietrich Bonhoeffer
I find it remarkable, and discouraging, that discussions about the goals of education these days never bring up what should be one of the most basic goals of any education—the development of wisdom. Think about it; we belong to a species called homo sapiens (wise men) and yet most of our educational institutions, primary, secondary and beyond make no reference to the goal of developing wise men and women. Why?
Maybe Economist E.F. Schumacher is correct when he writes in Small Is Beautiful: Economics as If People Mattered: “The neglect, indeed the rejection, of wisdom has gone so far that most intellectuals have not even the faintest idea of what the term could mean.” (p.35) Schumacher then stated that: “More education can help us only if it produces more wisdom.” (p. 75)
Most of us are aware that we live in an age which may be the most dangerous one in history. Our technology has created weapons that if used can annihilate humanity and perhaps destroy the entire planet. And even if we don’t use those weapons, we are destroying the planet at an accelerating rate in other ways—climate change being just one of them. If we fail to develop now and pass on to future generation the wisdom needed to manage our great power, wealth and scientific and technological know-how we will indeed be A Nation at Risk and a world at risk as well. One of our Founding Fathers, Thomas Jefferson, expressed a wish that is still yet to be realized: “I hope our wisdom will grow with our power, and teach us, the less we use our power the greater it will be.” He was speaking of our military power, but we would do well to heed his desire for wisdom in many areas of our lives.
A Working Definition of Wisdom
The Oxford English Dictionary 2nd edition defines wisdom as: “Capacity of judging rightly in matters relating to life and conduct; soundness of judgement in choice of means and ends; knowledge and use of good means to best possible ends.” [p.46-47].This seems a manageable teaching task for schools and those who work in them. It will require that educators teach students to judge correctly their own ideas and actions and the ideas and actions of others (including friends, family and national and international leaders). Teaching students those often mentioned, critical thinking skills will be part of this. Nurturing the growth of wisdom will require that teachers help students to develop the capacity to examine without prejudice ideas they may be opposed to as well as ideas they may have accepted without thinking much about them. It will require teachers to build into their classes the time and opportunity for reflection and it will necessitate spending time teaching students how to effectively reflect on situations and ideas. Those don’t seem unreasonable requirements for teachers to handle, do they? And as mentioned above, much is at stake in meeting them.
What Benefits Can We Expect if Acquiring Wisdom Becomes a Goal of Education?
- A reduction in the increase of hyper-individualism and a growth in concern for others and for the welfare of the community
- A lessening of the emphasis on callous competition and an increased awareness of the benefits of cooperation
- A thoughtful assessment of the possible negative consequences as well as the benefits of the technologies we build
- An increase in sensitivity, empathy, forgiveness and humility
- An awareness that there is a limit to human knowledge
- Recognition of the pros and cons of focusing on the pursuit of wealth, power and fame
- Determination to do something to reduce income inequality
- Have students read, discuss, debate and write about the ideas in great books. Most teachers have a sense of the great books in their field which would be age appropriate for their students or they can find lists on line. Here’s a link to one such list: https://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/l/literature/gbww/
- Teach students to learn from a subject rather than just learning a subject. Woodrow Wilson, who was an excellent college teacher before he became president, used to admonish his students to: “don’t just learn history but learn from history.” The same advice should be given to students in other subjects. In the Demon Haunted World, renowned scientist Carl Sagan laments the hollowness of his elementary and secondary school science education: “ …there was no soaring sense of wonder, no hint of an evolutionary perspective, and nothing about mistaken ideas that everybody had once believed.” (p.3-4)
- Use disciplinary infractions as occasions for developing wisdom. When students on an overnight field trip were caught drinking in their rooms, the faculty and I discussed what disciplinary action we should take. The easy answer was a three day out of school suspension. Instead, we decided on a different disciplinary route. The students received a one day in school suspension during which they were required to research a number of questions and prepare to make an after school presentation to their parents and the field trip chaperones. Questions included: Which of the school’s core values have you violated? In what ways have you disappointed your parents, your chaperones, your fellow trip members, the school community and yourselves? What does research say about teenage drinking and alcoholism? What is the most important lesson you personally have learned from this experience?
- Introduce students to ideas that provoke “cognitive dissonance” into classroom discussions or activities. Cognitive dissonance is tension which comes from holding two conflicting thoughts in the mind at the same time. In The Courage to Teach, Parker Palmer describes how one of his professors accomplished this:
transcribe it in our notebooks as if it were holy writ. Then
a puzzled look would pass over his face. He would pause,
step to one side, turn and look back at the space he had just
exited, and argue his own statement from a Hegelian point
of view. (p.136)
These are just a few ways of fostering the growth of wisdom in young people. There are, of course, others that teachers can share with one another. What is critical is that those responsible for the education of young people recognize that, while wisdom cannot be directly taught like mathematical operations or scientific principles, the seeds of it can be planted and cultivated in young people so that they do eventually become truly homo sapiens
.